


Spotless

by Elphaba42



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, alya is an enabler, anorexic!adrien, camp nanowrimo story, mari is like a sweet loving mother, there's gonna be some HEAVY stuff so good luck yall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-05-30 18:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6435952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elphaba42/pseuds/Elphaba42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrien just wants his father to treat him like a son, and will take extreme measures to be noticed. Marinette is just scared because her crush, friend, and partner is killing himself slowly and there's nothing she can do, but she'll try her hardest to do something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! How is everyone? This is the first story I'm posting for Miraculous Ladybug, so and constructive criticism would be fantastic! This is my April 2016 Camp Nanowrimo story and my word goal is about 10,000, so we'll see how well this goes. So far I seem to be doing pretty well but stuff happens.
> 
> Warnings for anorexia triggers and also there's a bit in this first chapter where I talk about vomit in some detail, so if that turns you off, you have been warned!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

When Adrien really thought about it, there wasn’t any specific moment that triggered the dieting. It was a culmination of things, honestly. The modeling, his father’s unwavering gaze whenever they were in the same room, all the sports, and the good feeling when someone told him he looked good. It was difficult at first, of course. His body didn’t know how to run on fumes and everyone had something to say about how thin he looked. It didn’t help when he threw up at practice or he had to sit out because he was too dizzy to keep standing.

Adrien learned quickly that people only talked about things that were directly in front of them. If he changed in the corner, his teammates wouldn’t say anything about his pronounced rib cage. If he asked to go to the bathroom or get a drink during practice instead of passing out in front of everyone, his coaches just let him go.

Adrien didn’t really know why he kept doing it. Maybe because it was just so easy. His father insisted that his meals would be eaten at home, no matter what. It wasn’t like his father ate with him anyways, and when he did, Gabriel Agreste was far too preoccupied by some document that apparently could not wait ten minutes to let him spend quality time with his son. Whenever Nathalie checked on him, he just had to push his food around so it looked like he was eating. Maybe he thought that if he did something extreme, his father would finally pay attention to him. Maybe he did it for the rush whenever a photographer told he looked perfect. When an interviewer asked how he kept his “perfect figure”, it was easy to just say that it was all his exercise and a balanced diet. It was worth it for the flash of pride in his father’s eyes when he finally noticed his perfect son being, well, perfect. 

The first person to notice something wrong was Ladybug. They were out on patrol, as they did three times a week, when Adrien started feeling lightheaded. Not like the lightheadedness you get from leaping around on Parisian rooftops, where you take a deep breath and everything’s fine. It was the kind of lightheaded where your vision started to go black and if you didn’t lay down and close your eyes, your were going to throw up, pass out, or both.

Adrien did both.

“Oh my goodness! Chat! Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened?” Ladybug was frantic when Adrien finally came to. It wasn’t every day that her partner threw up AND passed out all at the same time. It was a little jarring, to say the least.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little dehydrated, I guess.” Adrien groaned. It wasn’t true, of course. He knew for a fact that it was because he hadn’t eaten in two days and his body wasn’t taking it well, but Ladybug definitely didn’t need to know that.

“Wow. Okay. Then you need to go home, get some water, and go to sleep! You can’t push your body this hard, Chat, you know that! It’s dangerous!” Ladybug launched completely into worried mum mode, and it made Chat smile a bit, knowing someone was concerned about him.

So he took her advice. He went home, drank a tall glass of water, and went straight to sleep. With his constant activity, Adrien never had any time to himself and he’d have to be out of his mind to turn down an offer for extra sleep. Especially if it came from his lady.

And of course Ladybug noticed that there was no food in the vomit, and the bile didn’t look dehydrated. She didn’t press the issue, though. If Chat didn’t want to tell her why he had thrown up and passed out on patrol, especially a slow patrol like the one they had been on, she wasn’t going to force him to tell her. It didn’t stop her from worrying, though.

The next day, he ate breakfast. It wasn’t much. Just a banana and some milk, but it was more than he’d had in a while, and eating it didn’t make him feel guilty. It made him feel like he was doing something that would make someone (his Lady) proud.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Camp Nano is going really well so far; I've not yet hit any actual writers' block, though it was hard to start today's writing. Oh well. Writing every day is bound to have some road blocks. Thank you all for joining me on this journey and thank you especially to everyone who has kudos'ed and commented and bookmarked and subscribed. It really means a lot to me to have an audience to share my work with!! ^-^
> 
> Without further ado, chapter two!

The second person to notice something wrong was Marinette.

They were at her house, in her room, practising for the upcoming gaming tournament. Though they weren’t actually getting much practising done, as Marinette’s parents would come up through the hatch on the floor every few seconds (or at least what felt like every few seconds) with some kind of food in tow, be it croissants or chocolate chip cookies. At one point, her parents had brought up a little tray of cucumber sandwiches on fresh-baked bread. Needless to say, it was getting really hard for Adrien to continue to mask his hunger with every new tray of food and Marinette was noticing.

About thirty minutes into their practise, Mr. Dupain and Mrs. Cheng popped up through the floor with a platter stacked high with not-quite-sellable éclairs and Adrien’s stomach pleaded for food.

Adrien’s face turned bright, strawberry red, and Marinette hid a breathy giggle behind her hand.

“Adrien, would you like to take a break and have a snack?” She said, not even trying to mask her amusement. She already knew that he would absolutely love to take a break and have a snack, and the question was more good-natured teasing than anything else.

Adrien looked away from her well-meant gaze in shame. He hadn’t eaten in three days and the fact that his stomach had growled so distastefully in front of her and her parents, no less, was shameful. He had gone longer before without anything and the fact that he was so quick to crack when there was food in front of him was weak.

“Ah… no thank you. I’m not hungry.” He said, not making eye contact.

Marinette was unconvinced but did not ask more of him than he could handle. “Alright. If you get hungry, just let me know. There’s plenty of food downstairs. My parents would be more than happy to feed you.” Marinette was obviously choosing her words carefully, really trying to make him comfortable.

“No, it’s really fine. Do you have any water?”

When Adrien showed up in the cafeteria for lunch on Thursday, he sat with Alya and Nino and Marinette, happy to be spending time on one of the few days his father was lenient and let him eat lunch at school instead of alone in their cold, empty dining room. He sat next to Nino, not eagre to try to get in between the shockingly lovey-dovey couple that was Alya and Nino. Adrien set his tray on the table and took a deep sigh, knowing that today would be hard. He loved his friends, but they were incredibly observant and would almost certainly notice and comment (though not directly) on Adrien’s lack of food, were he to sit at the table without anything.

There was some sort of whispered argument coming from the two girls seated on the other side of Nino. It stopped abruptly and they both grabbed their trays, shot straight up, and walked to the other side of the square table, Alya placing herself opposite Nino and Marinette doing the same with Adrien. Marinette said nothing to him, just hovered over her seat a bit, and slid her helping of oranges and half her small bowl of pasta onto his space on the table. He raised his eyebrow in confusion and Marinette simply smiled and tilted her head to the side to signify confusion at his nonverbal question. (The pale pink blush peeking out from behind her freckles, however, said that she knew exactly what she was doing, she just wasn’t going to call Adrien out on his obviously too-small lunch.) Adrien just sent a sad smile at his food, silently grieving the fact that he was going to have to skip dinner that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters /are/ going to be on the shorter side, just because my word count goal isn't that high and there's no need to keep y'all waiting for 1,000-word chapters if I've got a shorter one ready and waiting for you guys. Thank y'all for reading, it really means a lot!
> 
> Also, I feel like there were some spots where I changed tenses oddly or worded something awkwardly so if you do notice something like that, could you please point it out? Two heads are better than one! Thank you!!!!! <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright yall I have a funny story. I'm an actual disaster and this chapter was finished on April 12, 2016. I reread it just now and it's been so long that there were parts I literally have no recollection of writing. It was a little freaky. Nevertheless, the fact that people actually continue to leave kudos and show interest makes my tiny, disgusting heart sing, and it really makes me want to write. I don't know when the next chapter will be uploaded, or if it will sit, partially finished, for another year before I upload it. Whatever the case may be, thank you all so much for sticking with me and being kind. I really do want to write more this year, but I'm taking all honours classes as well as my first AP class, so I'm honestly not sure how much time I'm going to have to myself. I'm not making any empty promises this time though. I'm not dropping the story, and it will be updated again. Eventually.

“Come on, man. I haven’t seen Alya in ages! Let’s go!” Nino groaned and rolled onto his back on the bed. He was holding his phone dangerously above his face, as if he thought that that would be some kind of incentive for Adrien to pull himself away from the German study guide he had apparently switched to when Nino wasn’t looking.

What Nino didn’t know, however, was that Adrien was intentionally avoiding Marinette and, especially, her family’s bakery. If Marinette’s sweetness wasn’t enough, the fact that her house was literally sitting on top of sweets land didn’t exactly help. She reminded him of Ladybug sometimes, when she was being intuitive or taking charge, like that one time she had had to take charge and protect their class, mayor, and a world-famous pop star from Adrien’s fencing teacher. She had asserted herself almost instantly, and it left Adrien swooning more than a little bit. When he returned home after an exhausting day, he had expressed his concern about Marinette’s similarity to Ladybug to Plagg. Plagg had quickly changed the subject, immediately shifting the flow of conversation from certain baker’s daughters to “sweet, sweet camembert”. Ever since then, Adrien had been on-edge around Marinette. The fact that she was now paying almost obsessive attention to his eating habits at lunch on the days that he was there was also starting to make him nervous. Who knows how she’d react if she found out that Adrien was intentionally trying to hurt himself so that his father would pay attention to him.

Adrien chuckled to himself, entertaining the thought of Marinette marching into his father’s office without even knocking first and giving him the verbal lashing of a lifetime, telling him how his son was suffering in a house that felt cold and empty because his father was never in it.

Imagination-Marinette really reminded Adrien of his mother.

He quickly shook the thought out of his head. She was dead now, no denying it, and thinking about her nonstop certainly would not help him forget her. 

“Alright man. We’re going. Put that study packet away or take it with you, I don’t care. But we are going to Marinette’s. Alya says that if I don’t bring you with me, she will dump me and I’m not about to let that happen, man. Alya’s the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time and-” Nino began rambling, no doubt trying to get Adrien to agree.

Adrien cut Nino off with a sigh, “Alright, man. You might be able to force me to go, but you can’t force me to enjoy it.”

“Yes! Alright, let’s go!” Nino shouted, grabbing Adrien’s hand and barely giving him enough time to shove all his to-do homework into his worn backpack before pulling him by the wrist in a distinctly Ladybug-like gesture out the door and into Paris.

‘Wow. You’ve got it bad, don’t you kid? Comparing everyone to Ladybug. Get a grip, man.’ A distinctly Plagg-sounding voice chimed up from the back of Adrien’s head with a distinctly Plagg-sounding comment to make. All the disembodied voice needed was the faint smell of gym socks and stinky cheese and Adrien might have actually panicked about Plagg’s being out in the open, especially in front of Nino.

The two boys arrived at the Dupain-Cheng pâtisserie not much later and Nino knocked on the door. Adrien’s shoulders aching from the pull of his backpack. “9.832 m/s^2,” Adrien mumbled to himself, not even having to think about the ingrained number, just coming up with it automatically, like a science robot.

“What was that, man?” Nino asked, a teasing smirk playing across his features, and Adrien blushed at the fact that he was discovered whispering the answers to things he had been studying only a few minutes before because of something as small as the pull of his backpack straps.

“Oh… y’know just remembering things that’re going to be on our Physics test next Thursday. It pays to be prepared.” Adrien joked. He burst out laughing at the sight of Nino’s face. Apparently Nino had forgotten about the test next Thursday and, as a result, had forgotten to study.

The door flung open, Alya obviously having raced down the stairs to receive them, her dark face flushed ladybug red. “Guys! I’m so glad you’re here!”

“Alya! How many times do I have to tell you not to get up and leave in the middle of our-” Marinette had followed Alya out of the room and stopped short when she laid eyes on the people waiting at the door to be let in. “Adrien,” she said with wide eyes, then pivoted on her heel and ran back up to her room.

Alya sighed when Marinette was out of earshot, “I love the girl, but could she possibly be any more obvious?” She whispered to herself. “Anyways, would you two like to come in? We’re currently suffering our way through English homework, if you’d like to help. Marinette is having trouble conjugating ‘to be’.” She said, louder this time.

“I thought you’d never ask!” Nino exclaimed, before exaggeratedly stepping over the pâtisserie’s threshold, bringing his arms and legs up like some kind of Frankenstein. Alya giggled at Nino’s ridiculous antics.

“Well, I’m going to stay down here and talk to my dearest beloved. Adrien why don’t you go upstairs and see how Mari is doing? She seemed to be in quite the rush to get out of here when she saw you. She might be nervous.” Alya said, before winking heavily (and suggestively) in Adrien’s direction. 

Adrien said nothing, just walked past the loving couple. He raised his eyebrows when Alya sustained eye contact, but she said nothing. Just shrugged her shoulders and turned away.

When Adrien reached the top of the stairs that led to Marinette’s room, he tapped in the trapdoor, making very little sound. A tiny “eep!” sounded from within and the trapdoor opened slowly, its hinges letting out an almost-silent creak, worn from years of constant use.

“H-hi… Adrien. What’s up?” Marinette said, choosing her words with care.

“Uh… can I come up?” Adrien said, uncomfortable with the awkwardness of the situation.

“Oh! Yeah!” Marinette cleared her throat. “I mean, yes, of course. Where’re Alya and Nino?” She tilted her head to try to see behind Adrien on the ladder.

“They… they’re still downstairs. Alya said she had to talk to Nino about something private and I should just go on ahead.”

“Alright. Cool.” Marinette said, nodding as slowly as she had opened the trapdoor.

A minute passed.

“So… can I… come in?” Adrien said again.

“Oh! Right. Sorry. Yeah, just come right in!” Marinette said, stepping to the side and holding the door open for Adrien to climb through. She was mumbling something under her breath, though Adrien really couldn’t make anything out of it. If there was ever a quietest girl competition, Marinette would certainly win first place.

Adrien sat on Marinette’s chaise lounge, his hands crammed between his knees as he tried desperately to keep his legs from shaking. Marinette was on the loft floor of her room. He could tell that she was pacing because her footfalls were rapid and even and, every once in a while, she would stop and either let loose a heavy sigh, or suddenly increase the volume of whatever she was mumbling to a low murmur. She would then resume her rapid pacing.

“Hey! Let us up!” Alya shouted after an unreasonably long time before pounding on the locked trapdoor.

Marinette raced down the stairs, her feet moving so fast they barely made contact with the hardwood surface.

“Alya!” Marinette shouted while unlocking the trapdoor. “Where have you been? I’ve been waiting up here for an hour!”

“Ok girl, firstly, it’s been-” She glanced at her phone clock, “Ten minutes and eighteen seconds. Secondly- ” Alya’s volume dropped and Adrien couldn’t hear what she said, but whatever it was, it made Marinette flush a brilliant red. 

Alya stepped into the room fully, Nino in tow, and clapped her hands. Marinette’s eyes shot up from where they had been fixed on the floor and Adrien sat straight up and pulled his hands out from where they had been nestled between his knees. He set his sweaty palms down on top of his thighs and turned his attention completely to Alya.

"Alright you two. I know you're both shy or whatever, but if you never properly get along, how are you supposed to get married and have the most beautiful babies France has ever seen?" Alya said, holding her clasped hands in front of her face in mock exasperation.

Marinette's head whipped around and she shot Alya and cherry-red death glare.

"Kidding," Alya said, though Adrien wasn't completely convinced. "Seriously though, you guys need to talk to each other more."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jeez. Honestly, thank you for staying with me. Or, if this is the first time you're seeing this story, thanks for taking interest. Or if you just came to leave an angry comment telling me that I'm lazy and I should stop making excuses and just write, thanks for keeping it real, I guess? (Even though that is literally the last way to motivate me to write lol). However you got here, thanks for sticking around. See you next year lmao.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, there you have it! Chapter one! If you've seen any glaring inaccuracies or spelling/grammatical errors, please point them out! Thank you so much for reading!


End file.
